We approach nonfiction at a much different level than we approach fiction or poetry or drama: that there's … - John D'Agata

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The government is unresponsive to the needs of the little man. Under 5' 7", it is impossible to get your congressman on the phone.

John D'Agata

We approach nonfiction at a much different level than we approach fiction or poetry or drama: that there's almost no room for metaphor. We expect the "I" in any nonfiction text to be an autobiographical "I" when there is a history in the essay of the "I" being a persona.

Different, Drama, Metaphor, Nonfiction, Text

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Sometimes the essay is where we end up when everything that we know must change.

Change, Ends, Essay, Essays, Everything, Sometimes

I never really understood the idea that nonfiction ought to be this dispensary of data that we have at the moment. Also, roughly around the time we were doing this fact-checking. And I never really understood why people think what nonfiction's job is to give them information as opposed to something else.

Giving, Ought, People, Thinking, Time

Pedagogically, we need definitions and borders. They help us get our heads around what we're talking about.

Borders, Definitions, Heads, Needs, Pedagogically, Talking

The whole movement of an essay is propelled by a fundamentally human impulse to want to figure things out.

Essay, Figures, Human, Movement, Want

An essay is something that tracks the evolution of a human mind. It tracks the evolution of a single consciousness in order to give us an experience - an experience of looking for something and then finding ourselves in a different place by the time we've finished our journey.

Evolution, Experience, Give, Journey, Order, Track